Community Norms, Tips and Frequently Asked Questions

Thank you for visiting DoPeace where we are empowering civic activism toward a culture of peace as part of work of The Peace Alliance, Student Peace Alliance and Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace. In using this site you agree to the Community Norms below. Please also see below for some tips on using the site and answers to some frequently asked questions. You can find additional information and assistance in the DoPeace Overview Video and in the Discussion Forum.

Again, welcome and thank you for being part of the community!

COMMUNITY NORMS

The DoPeace community is a place of and for peace activists who:
• Are committed to being a positive force for change in the world
• Embrace a pro-peace style of activism
• Work to embody nonviolence as a way of life, both in word and in deed
• Practice the principles of peace and nonviolent conflict resolution in their community communications
• Seek first to connect rather than convince
• Provide information that is, to the best of our knowledge and ability, truthful and accurate
• Are willing to explore complex and sometimes controversial topics with curiosity, compassion and
respect
• Welcome and encourage a diversity of background, belief and understanding
• Are honest and forthright
• Support one another in being the change we wish to see in the world, even (and perhaps especially)
when it’s hard to be

Thus, you as a DoPeace member agree not to upload, distribute, or publish through this website any content that is or may be, in whole or in part: false, unlawful, criminal, libelous, defamatory, slanderous, profane, obscene, pornographic, harassing, threatening, inappropriate, unprofessional, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable, racist, sexist, promoting or soliciting for commercial purposes, containing any known viruses or bugs, promoting or soliciting for criminal purposes, violates the rights of any party, or otherwise creates liability or violates any law.

You also agree to remain solely liable for the content of any posting by you on this website. While DoPeace administrators have no obligation to monitor the site’s content, we do reserve the right to review materials posted to the forums or blogs and to remove any deemed inappropriate or objectionable at our sole discretion. We also reserve the right to invite anyone who violates these principles to leave the community, or to terminate their account if mutual understanding cannot be achieved.

COMMUNITY TIPS

Working with Groups: DoPeace exists to support grassroots activism, and so our groups are organized primarily by State and Congressional Districts, as well as Region and Campus for the Student Peace Alliance (SPA). As such, we expect to have A LOT of groups (at least 535 for each Congressional District and State, plus hundreds of potential SPA campus groups).

At this time, groups cannot be organized hierarchically (e.g., we cannot make all of the districts from Maryland sub-groups of the Maryland state group), nor can they be listed alphabetically. That means the way in which you name your group is extremely important.

If you are creating a group that is geographically focused, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT you use the state name in your group name. If you are a SPA group, IT'S VITAL THAT you use "SPA" in your group name.

Also, please think long and hard about whether or not a GROUP is what you really want and need. If you want to have a discussion about issues that are not focused on or limited to a particular subset of the community, Discussions are a better place for that.

Below are examples of recommended group naming formats:

Maryland -- the group for everyone in the state of Maryland
Maryland 08 –- the group for people living in Maryland’s congressional district number 8
SPA–Maryland–UMBC -– the group for the Student Peace Alliance chapter at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County

You may also want to check out some of the other state and district groups for ideas of the type of content you may want to include in your group.

Working with Events: There's no way to order the events geographically or alphabetically, so people will very likely find your event by using the Search feature. You can help them by putting the state name and city in your event name, e.g., Colorado – Denver – Gelato Fundraiser. The search function will also search the content of your description, so be sure to put key words that you think people are likely to search for in your description.

Accuracy: You're strongly encouraged to double check any information posted on the site to ensure it is valid and from a legitimate source. If you see a posting that seems dubious or fraudulent in nature please use caution in responding and also contact the site administrator(s) so it can be removed.

Security: Please consider any information you disclose on the DoPeace site to be public information. Note that Google and other internet search engines index the site. So be smart and think about it before you disclose your personal information on comment walls, blogs, discussion forums, photos, and the like. You can adjust who can view your profile and postings by logging in and clicking on Settings then Privacy from your MyPeace profile page. See FAQ #14 below for more information.

Chat: A chat is an instant message conversation with one or more DoPeace members who are logged into the site when you are. The Chat option bar shows up on the bottom right of the screen. To open the chat window click on the bar at the bottom that says “DoPeace Chat” and shows the number of people online. To chat with a specific person, click on their picture and choose Private Chat. Type your content in the bottom frame and hit return to send it. If you just type in that frame and hit return without selecting a private chat, your note will go to everyone online. To hear a sound alert when a note comes in, click on the sound button that is above that bottom frame (next to the emoticon symbol). If you don't want to be available for chat, click on the person symbol until the dot on it turns red rather than green.

Photo: When you click on photos and view a slideshow, a new screen opens that provides more information on the photos, and users can even embed the photo players on other websites by clicking on share and taking the embed code.

Videos: Users can click on videos and get an embed code and show the video with the player on other sites.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1) HOW DO I REGISTER FOR THE SITE? To register for the site go to http://dopeace.ning.com and click on Sign Up.

2) ARE THERE ARE ANY FEES FOR USING THE SITE? No, the site is completely free.

3) WHY IS THERE ADVERTISING ON THE SITE? The ads are provided automatically by Google as part of the free account for the site. To have ads removed, we would need to pay a monthly fee, and at this time, that doesn't seem fiscally responsible. You should find that the ads are relevant to the site content; clicking on them supports Ning, the site service provider.

4) HOW DO I CREATE/EDIT A PROFILE? Once you've signed in, click on My Peace to answer the profile questions and upload a picture to create your profile. To adjust your profile click on Settings (in the upper right corner) to make changes to your profile information, security settings, and email preferences.

5) WILL I RECEIVE E-MAILS IF I JOIN THE SITE? As a DoPeace member you control what emails you receive. To adjust them, click on Settings and then on E-mail. You can then choose to receive no e-mails or establish customized settings (such as receiving e-mail notices when someone sends you a message). Note at the bottom of each blog or discussion posting you will see a place to click on Follow (Email me when people reply). Click here and you will receive an email letting you know when there is a new posting. At anytime you can return to the page and click on Stop Following (Don't email when people reply).

7) HOW CAN I CREATE/CONTRIBUTE TO A BLOG/DISCUSSION? To contribute to a discussion click on Discussions and pick a topic that interests you. You can create your own topic by clicking on start a discussion or respond to any of the postings by clicking on reply to this. To start your own blog go to Blogs and click on Add a New Blog Post. Please note that postings on the site should focus on general topics of the site (peace activism, conflict resolution, violence reduction and prevention, etc.). Postings that are inappropriate or of a commercial nature will be deleted. Repeat offenders may be asked to leave the community.

8) WHAT HAPPENS IF I SEE INAPPROPRIATE POSTINGS OR RECEIVE UNWANTED E-MAILS? This site encourages open interaction between members. However, if a member posts offensive and/or inappropriate material the member may be asked to leave the community. Also while, this community is designed to promote open interaction, please do not place blind generic postings/comments across multiple user profiles or send unsolicited spam to members. If anyone does violate this policy you may be asked to leave the community. You can also block communication from individual users if you so choose. Please free to contact a DoPeace Administrator if you have questions or concerns about something on the site.

9) WHAT IS A TAG? A tag is a one or two keyword description that you are encouraged to add to any postings you make on the site (pictures, blogs, forums, etc.) so that searching by keyword is easier and quicker. You can also click on any tagged items and view other postings with similar keywords. If you would like to make a tag longer than one word, please put it in quotes. For example the tag "conflict resolution" should be in quotes.

10) CAN I HAVE MY BLOG DISPLAY ON OTHER WEBSITES? Yes. Click on the bottom of your blog on RSS and you can then add it to other websites. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, a simple way of providing news feeds from websites.

11) HOW DO I POST AN EVENT? To post an event click on Events and fill out the necessary information. Once the event is created it will be visible on the site and it is possible to directly invite friends on the network. Events can be setup as private (only invited people can view the activity) or public (viewable by all). You can also choose to setup an RVSP function enabling people to respond directly via the site. It is also possible to close an event once it is full. Change the settings at anytime by clicking on edit.

12) HOW CAN I HELP THE SITE GROW? There are several things members can do to help the site grow including:
• Invite People to Join- You can invite friends and others in your peace network directly from the site by clicking on Invite. Note you can also import your e-mail contact books directly from Yahoo, Google, or your e-mail program such as Outlook, by clicking on invite and look towards the bottom of the page to click on webmail or Outlook importing.
• Post to Facebook, Myspace and others sites – Look for the “Share” box on many of the pages, including photos, videos, Blogs and your MyPeace page, then click on the icon for the site you use. You’ll be linked to that site and be able to feed your content directly into that site
• Add a DoPeace Badge to other Sites - Click on Get Badge from the homepage and follow the information there to embed a badge on another site.

13) WHAT HAPPENS IF I FORGET MY PASSWORD? Go to the sign in page and click the "Forgot Password?" link.

14) HOW DO I MANAGE MY PRIVACY? You can adjust your privacy settings at anytime by logging in and clicking My Settings then Privacy. You have the option of allowing everyone to see your postings (blogs, pictures, videos), or only your friends, or only yourself. You can also choose settings for each individual post you make. For example if you want most of your postings to be viewable only by your friends, choose that setting. Then you can choose to set a specific posting to be viewable by the whole network when you create it. Please note that DoPeace is an open network meaning outsiders can view the comments you make on your wall and others make on your profile. Thus, it is strongly recommended you not provide very personal information on the comment walls (nor your personal contact information). If you want to provide a personal message to a member, click on his/her profile and click send a message which will only go to the individual. You can delete any comments on your wall by clicking on the X to remove the post.

15) CAN I SHARE INFORMATION I SEE ON THE NETWORK WITH OTHERS? Yes. Towards the middle/bottom of each page (typically on the left side) is a share link. Click on Share and a window will open allowing you to share it on a variety of other social networking sites or to email it directly to a specific individual.

16) HOW DO I REMOVE MYSELF FROM THE COMMUNITY? Login and click on My Settings. At the bottom of the page you will see a link entitled Leave DoPeace. Click on the link and your account and all the material you have posted will be removed.

Have a question not answered here? Add it to the DoPeace Help Discussion, and we'll respond there and add it to this list in the future.

Thanks again for joining DoPeace!